Chevelle continue to crank out great hard rock music and the band’s seventh studio album, ‘La Gargola,’ just arrived in stores and online. The group has been receiving positive reviews so far for the heavier sounding effort and they’re getting ready to take their show on the road.

‘Loudwire Nights’ is our new nighttime show on KLUB Rock 106.9, and host Full Metal Jackie sat down with drummer Sam Loeffler to talk about the new album, how environment affects their music, their influences and their upcoming tour. Check out Full Metal Jackie’s chat with Sam Loeffler below.

Loudwire Nights, it’s Full Metal Jackie. Sam Loeffler from the band Chevelle is here with us. How’s it going, Sam?

I am all jacked up on coffee, so I’m pretty great.

We’re here to celebrate the new Chevelle record, ‘La Gárgola,’ finally in stores now. Gotta say, creepiest album cover I’ve seen in a long time.

That’s what we were going for. [laughs]

Now, Chevelle typically records albums in Chicago, but the new album was done in California. How did that change of location affect the final product?

Actually, we’ve recorded records all over the place. We have done some in Chicago. I’ll do all of our writing in Chicago too. But, it really does help get away from the place you’re at all the time to start something new. You just have to get out of your comfort zone. It helps.

We worked in Pasadena with Joe Barresi, our producer. His studio is just jammed pack with gear and we lived down the street from there so we could walk back and forth to the studio in the beautiful California weather while it was negative forty degrees in Chicago. That was nice.

Did you find yourselves getting into trouble in California?

No, we really worked the whole time. Unfortunately we didn’t have much time to do anything else, 12 hours a day. When you’re there and you’re not touring, you just want to do it. You’re excited about it. You just want to work.

Sam, how important is tone to the end result to these new songs and what prompted focusing on heavier tones for this album?

Well we were going for a heavier, dark record. We just wanted to do things differently than we did on the last one. The last one we used a lot of ampliphiers, this one we use more fuzz pedals, more distortion pedals, just mix up the sounds a lot. Barresi’s studio is a great place to do that because he has so much gear there to chose from, and try things until they work.

Tone is defintely important, especially when you differentiate from record to record. We didnt want to do anything the same as we did last time. Then, truthfully, we also still are the band that we are. So we still wanted to make melodic hard rock songs but, with changing up the tone and some of the style a little bit.

What are some of the bands you’d say influence Chevelle or what are some of the bands that you’re a fan of?

Good question, there’s a lot there. With this reocrd, we were listening to a lot of Ministry and had that idea of those chunky, really tight fuzzed out guitars. That’s kind of where that came from. So, we worked on that and I think — we have ideas that come from everywhere. So it’s really about whatever we’re listening to at the time, whether it’s something new or something old. It could even be an instrument we’re working on at the time.

Your tour kicks off on Friday. Let’s talk about who is going ot be out on the road with you.

Well, we have Middle Class Rut going out with us for a while, which is really great. They’re friends of ours. We love that band and we watch them every night. I’m not sure who else is coming out, we had a few different bands ducking in and out but we have so much touring to do this year, which is great. This first part is three weeks and then we go to Europe for a bit. Then we have a four week run, and then a five week run and then back to Europe, then hopefully Christmas.

Sam, two brothers and their brother-in-law. What’s the most noticeable way recording and touring together has strengthened your family bond?

Good question. I think we’re all adults and we treat each other like adults. So, I don’t know that we would let it fall apart. I don’t know that it strengthens your family bond, I think if anything you just really have ot learn how to deal with people. If anything I’d think because you’re family, and because you know you’ll be close in other places too you never really let anything get too far gone.

Sam Loeffler from the band Chevelle with us on the show. Good luck with this brand new album and all the upcoming touring coming up. Thanks a lot, Sam.

Oh yeah, absolutely. Thanks for the support.

You can hear ‘Loudwire Nights’ with host Full Metal Jackie Monday through Friday at 7PM through Midnight on more than 20 stations across America. To find out where you can hear ‘Loudwire Nights,’ click here.

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